The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Madeleine Robins:

Warren G. Harding supposedly fathered a child in a White House closet (which is to say, the conception took place there; the birth somewhere else). Of course, there's so much else to say about Harding that is damning that mere copulation seems rather beside the point.

Happy Birthday, Patrick. May it be full of good work, good food, and much celebration.

Happy 2007 to you both, from out here in the Wild West.

So, how'd it go?

Lizzy--I'll be thinking of you and your mother.

Teresa, you are more than swell.

San Francisco's sky is a pinkish gray which, anywhere else, would mean snow. I think it means rain, eventually. All the packages have been opened, the family fed, the dog is exhausted with having played with her new toys and has fallen asleep on the couch. The inlaws are dressing, the crown pork roast is airing before it goes into the oven, and Aunt Beryl's fruit cake--reworked with gluten-free flour for my sister-in-law, who has Celiac disease--is baked and waiting. So far it's been a swell day.

Merry Christmas to you and Patrick, and a glorious New Year.

Love and quiche, Mad

My father was a graphic designer specializing in package design, so gift wrapping was a full contact competitive sport in my household. Rectangular packages were plain-wrapped (usually in flintkote paper...I had no idea how expensive that stuff was until I left home and tried to buy some for wrapping paper. Holy shit!) and decorated in some quirky weird artsy way, with found bits of stuff--self-stick gold foil, feathers, short stories, one-act plays. It was the oddly-shaped stuff that was most fun; one year my mother got my father an Arts and Crafts era bentwood coat rack and gave it to me to wrap. In the end it looked rather like a technicolor alien, but I can honestly say Dad had no idea what was in the package.

Grotesque. I'm curious, though: the articles make it sound like everyone's hands were tied--or at least that everyone from the police to the Supreme Court believes they were. But even with the evidence, did the DA have to bring child molestation charges? Particularly given that (according to Dave @10):

9) It is a defence to a charge under this section to prove the accused person —(b) was not more than 3 years older than the child..

Wilson was 17; Tracy was 15. In my arithmatic class, that's two years' difference, not three. Am I missing something?

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And God knows, the advantage of being the well-known Lesbian daughter of Dick Cheney is something that millions aspire to...

We're having our annual holiday party on Sunday, so I made Jo's Aunt Beryl's fruitcake. Won't cut into it until the party, but it came out beautifully as near as I can tell. And the house smelled gorgeous. Now to make the gingerbread, the banana bread, the pumpkin bread and the chocolate bread....

Use a recipe that calls for the substitution of gum drops.

Gum drops?
Gum drops?

**shudders.**

Danny was highly resistant at first, but he's heard some tracks he really loves (it follows, of course, that he's heard a couple of tracks about which he feels "eh"). This hasn't stopped him from calling me over to the headphones and saying "You gotta hear this..."

"Prudent use of violence could be therapeutic." For whom? When you smash a mouse with a baseball bat it might (if you're a particularly sick person) make you feel better, but it doesn't do a hell of a lot for the mouse.

"Prudent use of violence could be therapeutic." For whom? When you smash a mouse with a baseball bat it might (if you're a particularly sick person) make you feel better, but it doesn't do a hell of a lot for the mouse.

Oh, what the hell. Go have a good time, why don't you?

Holy cow. And the sun is shining, too. (At least in San Francisco.)

Though last week, when Bush made his "Rumsfeld is doing a heckuva job" statement, someone in my household muttered, "How long you think he's got?"

Chryss at #75:
Me: "They were serving Thin Mints. Thin Mints! My G-d, have you ever had a SNACK at a polling place before? It shows that people are reaching out to others, and trying to form new communities, and..."

Husband: "...and somebody's kid pressured them into way too many Girl Scout cookies..."

You're right, Chryss. Thin Mints sell out fast, and in the unlikely event that someone had leftovers they'd be stale. Decent Thin Mints in November argues significant planning (not to say hoarding) by someone. They're reaching out, all right. If they'd had plates of Tagalongs I'd be less impressed.

My ten year old came home from school today, crowing. "Mama, in social studies today we figured out that if enough Democrats win in the congress, and then Bush and Cheney get food poisoning, WE GET THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT EVER!!!??"

We did a dance in the kitchen. The kid's bloodthirsty, but her heart's in the right place (right there with Patrick's, I suspect).

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